Crystalline Magic
by Bribear393
Summary: It's years after the books, and Chloe's recently deceased. Or is she? In this story we follow Derek in his quest to find out the truth to Chloe's death, and what exactly he plans to do about it. Rated 'M' to be safe, alludes to adult content, not explicit; adult language.
1. Chapter 1

****A/N** So, I know I said I'd do another story closely aligned with the books, and about three weeks ago I wrote most of it when I went to visit family…. And promptly left it on their computer. Hopefully I'll see them soon, and finish that story, but in the mean time, this popped into my head and exploded from my fingertips. **

**I hope you enjoy.**

_Chapter One: Aerith's Theme_

Final Fantasy Seven, Advent Children

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

It was too bright. I blinked hard until I could make out general shapes; the chair I sat on, a table beside me, a window in front of me. But no matter how much I blinked the room was still too bright; all of the furniture, the carpet, the paint, was in shades of white. Sunlight scored the room violently, and for a moment, I didn't see her.

She stood across the window from me, her bright blue eyes looking out to nothing, rich auburn hair falling delicately over her shoulders. She wore a white summer dress, her feet bare, and my heart ached at the sight of her. Because she was here, I knew that this was a dream, and I knew that when I'd wake up, I'd feel my loss all over again. My breath hitched at the thought, catching her attention. She turned to me, a graceful sway of her body, and a sob threatened to choke me, sorrow welling in my eyes.

"Derek, what's wrong?" I dropped my head into my hands, my tears overwhelming me. Her soft angelic voice washed over me, renting my heart in two. "Derek?" She touched a small hand to my shoulder, her heat radiating from her palm through my shirt, and I broke.

I reached out and pulled her in, burying my face against her, crushing her small frame to my body. And the tears; they wouldn't stop. I couldn't stop them if I tried. I gasped from the pain, a deep heaving breath, and her strawberry blossom scent came with it.

"God, _Chloe_," I wailed, the force of it cut by the soft fabric of her dress, by the realism of her body against my lips. She ran lithe fingers through my hair, grabbing onto both sides before pulling my face up. My chin rested against the center of her chest between two warms breasts, and I would've sworn her heart beat beneath it.

"Derek, what on earth has you so upset?" She looked worried for me too, genuine concern written in her wonderful blue eyes. I didn't want to say it aloud, had been avoiding doing so for nearly two months. But even though I could feel her, hold her, was moved every time she took a breath; I knew I had to tell her, because she asked.

"Chloe-" my throat closed up on her name, the word so taboo to my vocabulary that it was hard to say it twice. I closed my eyes, unable to gaze upon her as I spoke the words; "-you're dead." The sob came then, wracking my body with its force. I buried my face again, her supple body cradling me in a way that I hadn't felt in _so long_. Fresh tears stung my eyes and my fingers dug into her back. She bent over me, her strangely red hair brushing over my shoulders to envelop me further, her lips on my head and her scent _everywhere_.

"Derek, I'm not dead." I shook my head, her soft words too much, too innocent to be the truth.

"I saw, Chloe; I was there. I was there, and I failed. I wasn't enough-" bile rose, the stark honesty of my confession over encumbering my weary soul. Why- why would my mind do this, making me see her again, _feel_ her again. It was too much to take.

She pulled me away again, this time gliding out of my weakened grasp. I flailed to catch her, fingers slipping clumsily against her cotton dress, but she caught my hand with her own. The sight of her smaller hand in mine made me bite my lip. God, I missed her.

"Come here Derek, let me show you." She pulled up, and unbelievably I got to my feet. I shook, but she led me slowly to the window. She resumed her previous position, staring out intently; the only difference was her hand in mine. I studied her for a minute more; the light pink flush of life on her cheeks, her long brown lashes, the slope of her pretty nose down to her petal-soft lips. "Look, Derek; let me show you."

Her repetition made me frown. It felt… creepy, like she was stuck to a pre-set script. Her eyes flitted up to mine, questioning before she gave me a small grin. "Please," she added, a laugh in her voice. I smiled, the old expression stretching muscles far underused, and I turned to look out the window too.

Instantly I reared back, but she held me steadfast, trapping me here to watch my worst nightmare. Outside of the glass, beyond the white room, was a loading dock. Specifically it was dock twenty-two on the edges of Astoria; the dock where Chloe died.

"Why are you showing me this?" Damn it, my anger imbued my words, and I felt the impulse to apologize. I swore that if I ever got the chance to speak with her again, it would only be in love, but this crossed a line I hadn't prepared for.

"Watch, Derek, and look closely."

"I can't," I admitted pitifully, looking down at her again. She put a hand on my cheek, silently encouraging me, giving me strength.

"You have to, Derek. Watch." We turned together, the dark night of the pier outside clashing surreally with the still sun-bright room we stood in. I could barely see through my blurry eyes, but I watched, for her.

I watched as Simon's fog-spell faded, revealing him and Tori on the far side of the dock, mere feet away from the edge. And I watched as dad physically pinned one of the cabal men before spell-tying him to the ground. And I watched as an enemy witch struck me with magical lightening, crippling me, my muscles seizing. I even watched as the clouds parted across the moon, showing me Chloe, her blonde hair falling lankly over her face as she knelt on the damp cement, concentrating on raising our fallen foes. There wasn't any sound in the dream, but my imagination filled it in, because I knew every minute detail about this moment.

Simon looked up sharply before turning back to the group at large, his voice breaking as he screamed Chloe's name. I closed my eyes and hung my head. I didn't need to see myself helpless on the ground, my face pressed into moldy wood and rusty metal as I watched the love of my life get shot down three feet away from me.

The Chloe with red hair clicked her tongue against her teeth in irritation. I looked down at her, confusion winning out over the grief for just a moment.

"You missed it again Derek, pay attention to me." My hand gripped hers tightly, too tight for real life, as anguish tore through me.

"I can't, please don't make me." I was begging now, shameful and cowardly, but she only gave me a small frown and squeezed my hand back.

"It won't be so bad Derek." She pulled me front and center, standing at my back, her cheek resting against my spine.

The scene started with Simon screaming. This time I noticed Tori running for Chloe, too. My eyes drifted over to her just as the bullet caught her, forcing its way through her heart. Her eyes went impossibly wide, drifting over to my doppelganger before glazing over, staring at nothing as life seeped out of her. She fell backwards, her head hitting the pavement silently in the dream, but she didn't move after that. Peripherally I watched myself snap the neck of the witch violently, nearly tearing her head straight off. I watched Tori fall to her knees so suddenly that the momentum of her running made her fall over Chloe, landing her on her other side as she shook her, slapping her face. Simon and Dad took out the rest of the enemies before they got Tori and me, including the sniper on top of the crane the next dock over.

I watched as my memory hit the deck harder than Tori had, and before I had even stopped sliding Chloe was in my arms. I watched, the third party point of view disorienting, as I gripped her to my chest, checking her vitals even though her already grey-washed eyes told me she was gone. I watched as I gave her CPR, over and over and over again, _breath twice, pump twenty, breath twice, pump twenty_.

The ache in my chest grew as I watched Simon pull me off of her, insisting we had to leave. I watched as my father bound me with a spell before forcibly dragging me away from the scene to our SUV. And I knew that, even now, they were throwing me in the car. That once the spell wore off I had hit my father so hard he had collapsed. And I knew that, not two miles of driving after that, I made them pull over, falling onto the side of the road, vomiting all of my stress and suffering onto dewed grass before changing almost instantly into a wolf and running away, howling loud enough for the angels to weep at my sorrow.

But the view from the window stayed, and instead of watching my grief, I watched as Chloe lay lifeless on the pier. The stillness of the scene haunted me, and all of the regret for letting myself be taken over by Kit's spell renewed itself and doubled. She shouldn't be alone, left to rot like so many of the other corpses she had risen herself. She should have been buried on hallowed ground, high up in the mountains with wildflowers growing over her and sunlight shining down on her.

"Chloe-" I whined, my resolve shattering again. I realized I was holding myself, trying to physically protect myself from the onslaught of my sorrow. She wrapped her arms around me from behind, her warmth sending goose bumps up my back and across my arms.

"Keep watching." So I did. I watched as three of the cabal men came back for her. I watched as one poured a potion down her throat before laying a hand on her chest, murmuring words I couldn't hear. And I watched as her left hand twitched, just once, before they hauled her up and away.

"You're torturing me." I finally said as the scene faded to the unassuming cloudy white that was there before. Her whole body startled against mine. She dropped her arms from my body and came around, her eyes searching my face.

"Excuse me?"

"You're torturing me; punishing me for not recovering your body, for not keeping you alive in the first place." I didn't say it angrily. I didn't say it with any infliction at all. I knew it was the truth. My mind was horrified that I had left her, and in the time I had taken to grieve, it had come up with the worst possible scenario it could use to disturb me.

"Derek, why would I do that?" I looked away, still hugging myself tightly, hoping to get out of this horrible room as soon as possible. I didn't answer her because I knew she would never do such a thing to me. But it wasn't Chloe who stood beside me, not really.

"When can I leave?" My back was to her when I asked, trying to come off as dispassionately as possible, hoping to trick my brain into thinking it wasn't affecting me. Because of this, I didn't see her attack coming. She pushed me, putting all of her weight into it, making me trip over my own feet before I reached out to the chair to steady myself. When I turned around I only caught a glimpse of her snarling face before she slapped me, her hand winding back before cracking against my cheek. I left my head down, ready to take her abuse.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Derek? Do you know how hard I worked to get here?" She sounded so desperate, so distraught that I pulled her into my arms again. She fought me, but I held her against my chest, cradling her small body against mine.

"Please Chloe, I don't want to fight." I took a deep breath against her hair and she relaxed into my arms. "I've missed you. I've missed you so much, Chloe." Tears ran quietly down my face as her hands came up to touch me, brushing everywhere from my elbows to my back. She tilted her chin up and kissed the front of my throat and I cried harder.

"It's okay, Derek. I should be able to see Tori again. It's okay." I heard her, heard the resolve in her voice, but I wasn't really listening. Instead I soaked the feeling of her into every cell of my body; I wanted to remember her, just like this, soft and affectionate against me, kissing and touching me freely. I wanted to remember, almost twice as much as my heart needed to forget.

She pulled away just enough to catch my lips with hers, slowly dragging me into her kiss, her mouth hot and giving beneath mine.

"I love you Derek."

I shot up in bed, the dark strangling me in comparison to the airy brightness of my dream's room. My oversensitive ears quickly picked up sleeping breaths and snores, paring them with the three quiet heartbeats in the small rundown apartment, including Simon's across the room from me.

It was just a dream.

I lay back down, wrapping my blanket tightly around my body, certain that, at any moment, I'd burst from the agony that destroyed me. I buried my face in Chloe's pillow and cried, taking care to make sure I didn't wake up my brother.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two: Pathetique Sonata_

Ludwig Von Beethoven

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

I jumped when a cold hand pressed against my cheek, my coffee barely staying in my cup. I looked up into Tori's cinnamon eyes and sat still beneath her touch even as she rubbed her thumb across my cheek. It had been a shock for us to learn she was Simon's half-sister, but even though there wasn't blood between us, we would always be family. If Chloe's death had brought anything good into the world, it was that Tori and I were now closer than ever, bonded over our shared grief. Her touch brought only echoes of what Chloe's had in my dream, but it was still too familiar, and I was still too raw.

"What happened?" I closed my eyes and leaned away from her hand. She let it fall gracefully, but stayed in front of me. I could feel her watching me, her eyes tracking across my features to detect if I was physically unwell. I was certain I looked like it. When I had stopped in the bathroom my eyes were red, puffed up and too dry, and my hair fell lank and dirty, echoes of what it had been years before. That was only an hour ago.

When I didn't answer her Tori stepped aside to the coffee pot. I took the opportunity likewise to study her. She was thin, skinnier than usual, but she covered it up well with jeans and a large purple hoodie. Her thick black hair, despite the fact that she insisted on cutting it regularly, was long enough that she wore it in twin braids now, one hanging in front, the other falling back. The memory of her teaching Chloe to braid her hair snuck up on me without warning, and I had to fight to blink back the sudden stinging in my eyes before she faced me again. She sat next to me, quietly stirring her own coffee, watching me.

"I had a dream about Chloe." I murmured after a few minutes, the silence raking on my fragile nerves. She was mid-drink when I spoke, not the best timing I'll admit, and choked before catching her breath. She slammed her mug down and what seemed like half of her coffee splashed out and onto the bare table.

"You too?" My eyes flicked away from the mess to her wide brown gaze. Before I could ask, Simon walked into the room, plucking an orange from the fruit bowl on the island before facing us. His face fell from the light, half-faked smile he wore.

"Is everything alright?" I cleared my throat, the look on Tori's face evidence enough that she was embarrassed, so I spoke first.

"I dreamt of Chloe last night." I was surprised at how easy it was to say, now that I had spoken her name more than twice in my dream. He frowned, his blonde brows furrowing over dark brown eyes. He chipped away at his fruit uncomfortably for a moment before speaking.

"I'm sorry." I waved him off, drinking from my mug again. Tori jumped when I did and snatched up napkins from the center of the table as though she hadn't realized she had spilled.

"It's not your fault, just my mind taunting me."

"I dreamt of her too, last week." Tori interrupted Simon quickly, and I was grateful. She looked sad, though; wistful. "She had the prettiest red hair." I snapped my head her way, pure shock contorting my face.

"What did you say?" She frowned at my biting tone, but none of us had been at our best lately. She shrugged delicately before repeating herself. I flattened my hand and pressed it against the middle of her arm. "To here?" She stared down at my hand for a moment before slowly meeting my eyes again.

"Yes."

"What was she wearing?" I asked quickly, anxiety raising my voice.

"Stop, Derek; it was just a dream." Simon interrupted, his face tired and haggard. But Tori wasn't willing to let it go so easily, and neither was I. We turned our shoulders subconsciously away from him.

"A white cotton dress, with a v neck," she showed me with her hands, "that went to her knees. And no socks or shoes; her nails were painted pink." _That_ I hadn't noticed, but everything else was spot on. She must've seen it in my face because she continued on without prompt. "She showed me that night again, how a shaman had given her a potion and brought her back to life with a spell. Only, I know magic, so I questioned her on it. She told me that they told _her_ that the bullet was laced with a potion, so her heart was stopped _just barely_, just enough to have us think she was dead, and for them to revive her." Her anxiety muddled her grammar, but I was eager enough to ignore it and jump on her theory.

"Impossible, I would have been able to tell the difference."

"Normally, sure; but you were more distraught than I was, _and_ you had just been zapped hard enough to incapacitate you." I paused and leaned away, thinking back on the night. Was I able to hear anything after I had gotten zapped? Did I hear Simon scream for Chloe; or had I seen it, and my mind filled in the sound later?

"You two need to stop." We both turned to Simon. His face was startlingly red against his bright hair, his eyes glassy with tears and his body shaking. That was the moment our father decided to walk in.

"Am I missing something?" he asked carefully after taking measure of the situation.

"Derek and I think Chloe's still alive." Even as Simon flew off the handle I was correcting her, adding a 'there's a chance' to her statement. The argument that followed was loud, unnecessarily punctuated with name calling and fruit throwing. In the end dad left with an 'I need to research this,' as his farewell. Simon sneered at me and Tori, spitting a 'Now look what you've done,' our way before storming out after him. Tori gave me a smirk.

"Now look what we've done indeed."

I thought about Tori's words for most of the day. Though she had in the past, I was sure she wouldn't stir up trouble over Chloe if it wasn't legitimate. Not to mention she had been the one to describe Chloe to _me,_ not the other way around. But as the afternoon passed, her words kept repeating in my head; _now look what we've done indeed_.

I knew what she meant; for the past two months everyone's been sort of listless. Dad holes up in his study, sitting and staring at nothing. Simon wanders aimlessly, here, but not registering anything beyond superficial awareness. Tori and I were the only ones keeping up with training, but even that was only because of my crippling determination. Never again would I be unmanned by a spell, and Tori was the one who fired the bolts to help me.

Now, though dad was still in his study, he was actually _studying_. Simon was with him after some convincing; looking through every website and text he could get his hands on. Tori and I were the ones that were stuck; continuing with our same routine of dueling against each other, her testing me with magic, and me testing her with brute force.

We all took lunch separately, and Tori and I worked together to make lasagna for everyone, leaving it in the fridge for Dad and Simon to eat once they poked their heads out. I worried about Simon not eating by Tori told me not to; she said she found a hidden mini fridge in the study two weeks ago, and that was probably what they were eating from now.

Chloe didn't come to me in my dreams like she had the night before, but I did dream of her. Or rather, I dreamt of a memory of her. We were in the woods somewhere, her blonde hair tumbling freely over one shoulder as she looked down at the small chocolate box in her hands.

"Happy Anniversary." I said with mock enthusiasm.

"Oh. Thanks." She flashed me a huge smile that would have looked totally real… if I didn't know her better.

"Simon said that's what I should get you. That or flowers. So you like it?"

"Sure."

"Liar," I shot back. Her face went bright red as she stammered on her words.

"N-no, really. It's great. It's-"

"Completely and totally impersonal. Like something you buy in bulk for all your teachers." She seemed to think on my analogy for a split second before arguing with me.

"No, I like this kind. You know I do and-" I interrupted her by holding out the bag, the plastic weighed down by the objects inside. Her blue eyes went wide, her face utterly confused.

"Your real gift," I said, shaking the bag her way again. She looked in. Grinning, she pulled out a penlight, a Swiss army knife and a can of mace small enough to fit in a purse.

She sputtered a laugh. "This is…"

"Practical?" I offered, hoping she didn't think the gift was completely out of left field.

"In my life, it is definitely practical. But I was going to say thoughtful." She smiled up at me, and I felt myself smiling back. "The most thoughtful gift I've ever gotten." My grin grew.

"And the most completely unromantic? Simon almost had a heart attack when I showed him. He made me get the chocolates, as a backup."

"I'm sure he did. Which I suppose explains why I ended up with you instead." She rose on her tiptoes to put her arms around my neck. "Because buying me gifts to keep me safe? That's _my_ idea of romantic." I bent and kissed her, lifter her up to get a good grip on her before lowering her to the grass behind the tree. My heart was ready to burst out of my chest, but I kept her lips with mine, enjoying the pure happiness of the moment.

I woke up slower this time, my heart still lingering in the dream, a smile on my face. But it made me feel better about our situation, too. It reminded me how self-sufficient Chloe is. It reminded me that, as hard and belated as we are trying to figure out how to get her back, she was working twice as hard for ten times longer. Between the two of us, I could almost trick myself into believing we'd see each other again. If she was alive.

I sighed and rolled over on to her pillow. If she wasn't alive, and these dream-memories were all I'd have of her, I was more than ready to have another. I closed my green eyes, pulled my blanket over my shoulders, and slept.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three: Romance in F Major, Op. 11  
_Antonin Dvorak

_**Enjoy!**_

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

Tori and I sat at the dining room table, staring at each other over our bowls of Cream of Wheat. She looked disgusted at my addition of cinnamon to my breakfast, almost as disgusted as I was with the honey she added into hers.

We each took a sip of our coffee and another bite of our food.

For almost four days we had been like this, stuck with the other as our only company. Dad and Simon rarely came out, and when they did they were back to the study in record time. I was pretty sure they had been sleeping in there, if they slept at all.

So Tori and I continued to stare at each other. I tore off a corner of toast to dip in my cereal and watched as she did the same. I was gearing up to say something, anything to break the silence, but I couldn't figure out how to start. Hell, at this point I was ready to toss my mug on the floor, just to hear it shatter, just so it would break the tedium of our situation.

We were taking twin sips again, glaring at the other when Simon screamed out, "I've got it!" We choked together and her mug ended up on the floor, the top of the handle chipped off.

"Damn it," she muttered, standing to get a kitchen towel to clean up the spill. She had moved just in time; not a second after she had gotten out of her chair Simon barreled over it from the door, one of the largest books I've ever seen cradled in his hands. He threw it down on the table between our bowls, narrowly missing my coffee. I picked it up just in case he made anymore erratic movements.

"I found it, the toxin that was on the bullet." My jaw dropped and Tori rushed back over to us so fast her hair fell out of its bun. I brushed the black strands out of my face when she leaned over me, her nails digging almost painfully in my shoulder.

"There's such a thing?" I asked, breaking the tension. Simon nodded vigorously, sitting in Tori's abandoned chair as dad walked into the kitchen, a separate volume in his arms. He set it gently on the other side of the table as Simon talked.

"It's incredibly difficult to make; a shaman has to actively put his magic into the ingredients, and even then, that shaman is the only one that can give the cure." Tori raised a brow, her hands subconsciously kneading into me.

"That sounds… planned."

"The ingredients are also quite rare," dad added. He looked worse for the wear, too, but his eyes were bright with excitement. I felt my heart start to race in reaction, my body and my wolf _more_ than ready to act. "Which has led us to believe that it's definitely someone still working with one of the cabals that set this up."

"Do we know which one?" I asked, and impossible question, but he seemed ready for it.

"There's one ingredient, a flower of some sort that only grows in Canada. So we're thinking it's the St. Clouds, though it could really be anyone." I nodded to myself, the new information shooting off in a dozen different tangents in my mind, trying to make logic of our new situation.

"Does that mean she's in Canada then?"

"That's what this book is for," Simon said, pulling the book away from dad and turning it towards us so we could read it. It was opened to some sort of tracking spell, and my head spun with excitement, but reading down the ingredients quickly quelled that.

"Where are we supposed to get a direct genetic link to her?" Nails dug into me again at my question and I turned to Tori. She looked shocked, and… elated? "Tori?" I questioned. She turned to me, a smile on her face; the first time in months I had seen her straight white teeth.

"Come with me, Derek." She reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling me up from the table. I set my cup down, narrowly avoiding spilling it again, and my addled mind threw in the thought of investing in a travel thermos before she dragged me around to the spare room. The one with Chloe's things in it. I pulled her to a swift stop, her momentum so large that she yo-yoed out and back onto my chest.

"I'm not going in there, Tori. I know we have a lot of hope these days, but-"

"I saw her Derek, she came to me again." My heart crushed just a little at her words; why had she not seen me? I know I wasn't very receptive the last time, but now that Tori and I had talked I was certainly more open minded. "She told me to bring you here, that Simon and Kit would find something to help, but they'd need you to help first." I softened, just a bit, at her use of our dad's first name. I knew she still didn't feel like a piece of the family unit, and Chloe's passing hadn't helped. She pulled me forward, still holding my hand tightly, and opened the door.

I was instantly flooded with Chloe's scent, and for a moment it paralyzed me. I leaned against the doorway. She let go of me and wandered into the room, seemingly satisfied that she had gotten me this far.

"So we need a physical piece of Chloe without having her around," she danced around the fact that she was dead and it made my heart ache. We had hopes she was alive, but it was far from confirmed. Her change of speech from past tense to present tense was hard to hear. "She always told me you had a pretty good nose; would you be able to sniff out the difference between her and her belongings?"

I furrowed my brow. It was a… strange idea to say the least. But it also sounded like something Chloe would come up with. I didn't reply, instead settling for a shrug and stepping into the room.

It felt like she was all around me, like she was with me again, and I let myself get lost in it. It was so comforting, her scent, that it felt like coming home. But it was an empty receiving, and for a breath, I was bereft from the reality of it.

But I shook myself and moved on, slowly walking around the room, sniffing the air and hoping this insane idea would work. I passed by the small window and paused, ducking my chin to take a deep dreg of the air. By now dad and Simon were in the doorway, watching us, but I ignored them, ignored their scents. I kneeled in front of the three boxes stacked beneath the sill.

One held a small stack of journals, books, and sketches from Simon. I set that aside to dig through later. The second one, though, held her toiletries. Her strawberry shampoo, her floral soap, the lotion that made her flesh so incredibly irresistible; it was all here. I was so lost in my findings that I almost didn't notice Tori reaching out from beside me, pulling out a fat silver paddle brush, blonde strands weaved tightly between the spokes.

I read over the tracking spell while they gathered what they'd need from around the house, rubbing my thumb across the face of Chloe's watch. It was the one I had given her on her eighteenth birthday. Her sports watch had just broken, and though she wasn't one for frivolous gifts, I got her this. It was glass and gold, with dark blue leather bands and a rose compass in the middle.

She wore it almost always, evidence of that in the wearing on the inside stitching of the band. But she kept it in Tori's jewelry box if she thought we were going to get into trouble. Like that night.

My family joined me at the table, but I didn't stay long. I had read the spell, and I knew how it would work, but there wasn't anything I could do beyond that. So I left, making sure Tori locked the door behind me. I took my time getting to the woods, but once I found a good spot I stripped down, resting my clothes in a tree, and Changed.

Changing had only gotten easier over the years, infinitesimally so, and now the worst part, just before I was fully wolf, barely lasted for a heartbeat. It was like a passing panic attack; I knew the threat was there, but it shored up and washed away seamlessly. I darted into the heavy woods that lined our property, dodging tree trunks and roots alike as I worked out my anxiety through running.

The power in my wolf form was indescribable; the muscles in my shoulders bunched as I ran, pulling me forward, and my eyes and ears were faster than I was, spotting dangers, my instincts moving me before I even realized I had done it.

We were currently in northern California; just far enough from Chloe to make it stop hurting, but close enough that I could run there. I had, on more than one occasion. But she was already gone by the time I had gathered my courage and my wits, and she was gone every time since.

I didn't go nearly so far now. I made laps around the property, my nose to the ground, making sure we hadn't been followed here, or tracked here in our time at the apartment. We had been here for nearly a month now, which was a lot of time to still be in one place. But none of us were up to moving. It had nearly torn Tori in two to have to pack away the few boxes of things Chloe had collected over the years. And I wouldn't even be able to be in the car, suffocated by her scent…

I came back well after midnight, but they were still at it, locked in concentration around the dining room table. I skirted around them and down the hall, taking a quick shower before going to bed. I lay under my sheets and prayed for the first time since I had killed Liam. I prayed that this spell would work, and that Chloe was alive, for all of our sakes.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter Four: Moonlit Sonata_

Ludwig Von Beethoven

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

"In the woods huh?" I lolled my head to the side and smiled at Chloe. I was in another memory, and this one was one of the happiest of all. I pulled her chilled body against mine, the heat leaving my skin in the face of my post-coital bliss. She was striking up the conversation we were having before we had gotten physically preoccupied, and I didn't mind one bit.

"Yes, in the woods. Is that somehow inappropriate to you?" She shrugged a shoulder at me, the picnic blanket I had pulled over us threatening to slip away again. I rubbed my thumb along her spine, massaging her, loving the way she melted against me and sighed.

"Well, we do all sorts of other things in the woods, why not get married too?" I laughed aloud at that, glancing down at her, admiring the way the sunlight and the leaves of the trees around us danced their shadows across her flaxen hair.

"Were you particularly set on a church and I didn't know it?" She gave me a smile and a kiss before settling against my shoulder, pulling me closer.

"No, I'm just surprised by you is all. And I'm curious as to how you'll find an officiate to drag into the woods in the middle of the night."

"Who says it has to be night?"

"You said it's the prettiest time in the woods, so why wouldn't we do it then?" I leaned down to give her a lingering kiss, the sleepiness in her voice bothering me. She wasn't allowed to fall asleep in the middle of this particular conversation.

"It's the prettiest time as a wolf, but the sunrise is pretty beautiful, too." I retorted after I managed to pull away from her addicting lips. She gasped, hitting me on the chest, her hand slapping against my skin.

"Like hell I'm getting up at dawn to hike in the hills to my own wedding!"

"To answer your other question, Simon's taking some online course to become an officiate; it's all perfectly legal, and highly convenient." She was nuzzling into me again, a small smile on her face, and the heady elation of my small victory washed over me.

"That sounds perfect."

When I woke up there were tears on my cheeks. I reached up and wiped at them tiredly, heaving a sigh into my hands. Only my wolf senses warned me when a hand reached out to brush my shoulder. I felt out into the pitch black, stroking the hand that had found me, but as soon as I had I recognized the scent as Tori's. I let go as she sat on the bed and turned on the lamp on my nightstand.

Her eyelashes sat heavily over her brown eyes, but she was happy, smiling. I gave her a small smile back.

"What is it Tori?" She took my hand again with one of her own, reaching up with the other to wipe at a tear I had missed on my jaw.

"We found her." My heart jumped into my throat, and I thought I'd feint.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to be gentle but failing almost entirely. I tried again. "How do you know?" She heaved her own sigh before throwing herself down over me and on the bed, setting Chloe's pillow to the side before pulling her hair up and over my own.

"It was a horrible spell; not only did it require Chloe's hair, but it also needed my blood," she whined lightly, showing me the injured pad of her left pointer finger. "But it worked." Her wrist twisted for me and she showed me Chloe's watch. The compass was tinged with a brown-red color, and there was only the minute hand now, pointed towards the six, towards the wall behind me. She rotated her hand, and the dial moved accordingly inside of the glass, always pointed at the wall.

"When I put the watch on it gave me a vision. I don't expect it'll ever happen again, but I saw her, with her red hair and the blue dress she was wearing yesterday." I leaned back on the bed again, the thought of how different Tori's dreams of Chloe were irksome. It was a petulant feeling, but it was there, taunting me. I wanted to dream of her again, to interact with her instead of simply reliving the best times in our short romance.

"So, east then?"

"East," she confirmed, yawning daintily in the back of her hand. I rolled over and pulled my comforter over her frail body, bussing her on the top of her head.

"Sleep, Tori. We'll start in the morning." She nodded, but just barely. She was asleep before I turned out the lights, and I left her there. I'd be back before she woke, but I needed to find Simon.

He was leaning against the railing on the balcony, a glass of iced scotch cradled between his hands, dried tear tracks on his cheeks. I stood beside him, looking out into the night quietly, waiting for him to talk to me. It took more time than I expected, and he was nearly done with his drink before he acknowledged me.

"I left her," he whispered, his voice carrying a tone of despair I had never heard from him. "I left her there to die, alone, on that cold wet pier." He slammed down the rest of his drink. "And as if that isn't enough, I also left her to get captured by the enemy. They're doing God knows what to her, and I _let them._" He threw the crystal into the woods, and though it took a moment, the distant shatter of it breaking resounded back to us.

"We all thought she was dead. I'm no less guilty than you are." I left my real feelings unsaid, that I was _more_ guilty, because it was my duty to protect her, and I hadn't. But that wasn't what he needed to hear right now.

"I saw her you know."

"When?" I barked, unreasonably jealous that everyone seemed to be getting dreams of her but me.

"When Tori put on the watch," I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. "She thought she was the only one, but dad and I saw her too. She looked so… healthy." I nodded. She had looked exceptionally well in my dream, too. "We have to get her back though." I nodded again, what else could I do? It had never been a question of if I would get her back. If she was alive, I'd find her. If she hadn't been…

I rolled my shoulders stiffly and pulled him away from the balcony.

"Come on, Simon. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow; we should rest while we can." I managed to put him to bed, even with Tori in the room, and retired myself to the kitchen table. I sat, a glass of water in my hand, staring at nothing in particular, waiting for the day to break.

"Six months?" She yelled it, but she wasn't mad, just caught off guard.

"Apparently they want people to really put an effort forward for this whole marrying business." She harrumphed, her light hair shaking cutely with the act.

"Well, that's just ridiculous." She turned sly blue eyes on me, a queer grin on her face. "I suppose you're happy to be holding onto your bachelorhood for a half year more?" I picked her up, swinging us around to set her on the dining room table. She jumped a bit at the feel of the cool bare wood against the backs of her thighs, but I kept her there, bringing her to near eye-level with me. I gave her a small kiss before I spoke.

"Chloe, if it were up to me, I'd take you downtown tomorrow and be married to you by noon," she shivered at my whispered words and I held her close, always holding her close. "But I'd like for us to do this right. We have the time, why not make it a celebratory affair? A wedding to remember and regale our children with." She smiled against my cheek, wrapping her arms around my neck.

"You're such a romantic Derek Souza. I never knew."

"I'm only romantic with you, because I love you. We're going to get married, and buy a house high in the mountains and have a whole litter of dark-haired blue-eyed children. Just you wait, Chloe; we're going to have the time of our lives."

I caught Tori's hand before she could touch me, and for a moment, I was sick with how disoriented I was. My other hand lay flat on the table, the one we'd had for the past year, the one where Chloe sat, _right there_, just seconds ago in my mind. My eyes were dry, though, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. Tori turned her hand in my grasp, her cold slender fingers wrapping around mine.

"It's time to go." I nodded and let her lead me out of the door, locking up our home behind us.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five: The Ghost of You_

My Chemical Romance

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

She tiptoed into our room, gently closing the door behind her. She was bundled up in a maroon sweater of mine, tights on her legs, fuzzy slippers on her feet. I couldn't feel it, but I knew it was winter, just like I knew this was a dream; it was undeniable fact. She took two steps towards me, a small white object in her hand, her diamond twinkling from her ring finger, but I had to look away. My breath caught in my throat as she walked closer still.

This dream... in this dream, Chloe was twenty, and I was twenty-two, and I remembered _this dream_ so vividly, because this dream had happened only days before she died.

"Derek?" I looked up at her, running my hands through my hair, instinctually following my preset script.

"What did it say?" I sounded panicked, though I remember trying my damndest to sound neutral. I _had been_ panicked, scared out of my mind, but I didn't want her to know, because she'd assume it was for the wrong reasons. But she gave me one of her sly appraising looks before lowering the stick so I could see.

"It's negative." I took the test into my own hands, staring at the single faded pink line behind the glass window. I was… disappointed. I had been scared, but not for a baby.

Because what if she had been pregnant, and I hadn't noticed the difference? I could… smell, or sense the difference when she was in heat and not, because of her pheromones, because of the chemical changes she went through. They were minute, but as a wolf, I could tell.

So what if I didn't notice she was pregnant? It's something so physically changing; and what if I hadn't known? What if, this whole time, she was sick or injured or _anything_, and I hadn't noticed?

So I breathed a sigh of relief that she misinterpreted, the exact thing I was hoping to avoid. Her hands practically flew to her side-cocked hips, anger and confusion flowing off of her in heavy waves.

"What do _you_ want, Derek?" she asked, her voice biting into my conscience. I set the test aside on the bed before putting my hands on her body above hers, pulling her between my legs. From here, with me sitting on our bed and her standing, she was just a hair taller than me.

"I want you to be happy. I want you to be happy, and healthy, and God willing soon, I want you to be very much pregnant." Her sides shifted under my hands as her own petite ones came up to rest on either side of my throat. My head was tilted back to see her, and she took advantage of that, rubbing her warm thumbs back and forth across my jaw. She was so wonderful, so comforting, I never wanted this moment to end. But she was curious, too.

"You do; even out of wedlock?" Her question startled a laugh out of me, I couldn't help it. She started to draw back, but I just pulled her in closer, resting my cheek against her sternum.

"Even out of wedlock. I wasn't worried about that; I was worried that I hadn't sensed the change in you." She tugged me up by my hair, the familiarity in the action made my chest ache, and she looked me in the eyes.

"I'm _sorry_; you weren't worried about an unplanned baby, but that your super-wolf wasn't powerful enough to tell you about it?" Sarcasm laced her voice, and I could tell that beneath it, she was just a little bit mad. But I couldn't help but grin goofily at her. She hadn't disagreed to having children yet, and the thought had me soaring.

"What good is a super-wolf if he can't warn me about a thing or two?"

"Hmph. What the hell else does it warn you about?" I tactfully ignored her question, rubbing my hands up and down her sides.

"What about you, Chloe? What do you want?" She flashed her teeth at me and moved, using her grip on me as leverage to lift one leg, and then the other, over my hips. My hands slid smoothly to her back, pulling her pelvis close to mine.

"Well, if we've agreed on children, we have to start making them at some point, yeah?" She squealed and laughed when I turned us around, laying her on the mattress, my hands dancing beneath the sweater, across her abdomen and up towards her breasts.

"You read my mind." I took one last look at her; the way her blue eyes shone in the dim afternoon light, her blonde hair splayed across our comforter, before I lowered myself for a kiss from her waiting mouth. I was centimeters away, her sweet breath hot on my lips when I was torn from the dream and I jerked awake.

I sat up in the car, quickly assessing the situation, trying to figure out what had woken me. My next deep, panicked breath told me what was wrong. I met Simon's eyes in the rearview mirror, the glow of the dashboard strangely orange on his face.

"Don't stop driving." I swallowed, thinking on our predicament. "In fact, drive faster." His eyes, black in the strange red light, bounced down to the odometer before meeting mine again.

"I'm already speeding. What's wrong?" I looked around the car for a moment. Tori was sprawled out in the front seat, her arm splayed awkwardly across the center, resting on the dash so Simon could see the compass-watch. Behind me, in the back bench seat, dad lay tucked away in his blanket. Beyond him was the trunk with our duffle bags.

"There's a wolf pack near by." His throat bobbed up and down once and he glanced at the speedometer again. I heard the engine rev.

"How can you smell them?" I ran a firm hand over my face before gesturing at the air vents. Now that I had detected the threat I had to pull the rest of my body into the waking world. It was harder to do than usual. _That_ time had been the last time, and my arms still physically ached with the need to hold her.

"Do you think they can smell you?" It was a legitimate question, but panic flared in my chest. I took a minute to calm myself down before thinking it through. Air vents for cars worked one way; they bring air from the outside in. Technically the displaced air had to leave the car, but if we were doing– my eyes flicked to the dash –eighty five, and with everyone else in the cabin, my scent should be feint enough that they wouldn't notice.

"I don't think so, but I'm not taking any chances. We shouldn't even stop in this town." I finally looked at my surroundings; endless, impossibly high mountains and evergreens surrounded us on three sides, with a cliff cutting off of on the other side of the road on the fourth. "Where are we?"

"I-70 in Colorado. We've made excellent time." I was just about to ask if he was good to keep driving when Tori's entire body twitched. I reached for her, but her left hand flung out and smacked Simon in the face. The car swerved, bouncing first into the wrong lane before veering off of the shoulder, catching the dirt off-road and sending us in a tail-spin. Her hand shot out again, but this time it smacked into the glass of her window, sharp enough to make it crack beneath the pressure. She woke up then, screaming, but Simon managed to stop the car. I threw myself out, pulling open Tori's door and prying herself off of her injured hand.

"What the hell was that?" Simon shouted, slamming a fist on the steering wheel. Tori's entire body was shaking, and I had to grip her elbow to get a good look at her hand. Her thumb was swollen, already almost twice its regular size. I was feeling for broken bones when I glanced back at dad. He was still laying down, his seatbelt snugger than usual, a pillow over his face.

"What's wrong with dad?" Simon glanced back, too, before waving him off.

"He took a potion to sleep; he'll be out for hours. What happened with Tori?" I glanced up at her, her cinnamon-brown eyes scared and her black hair tangled around her face. I found a broken bone, and she flinched.

"I don't know; I was just sleeping, and then my hand…" I turned her wrist over to look at the watch. The dial had shifted.

"I think it was the watch. It's pointing south." Simon rubbed his jaw before looking away.

"It didn't need to freak out about it; I was watching." I shrugged, but I suspected it had to do with how volatile the spell seemed to be. Tori looked up at me, taking a deep breath.

"So, south now?" she asked in a small voice. She looked scared, nervous to be finding Chloe after we had all lost her so horribly. I pet her hair away from her face, hoping to quell her fears, if not ease my own.

"South."

"What's south little pup?" I growled, grinding my molars together in frustration even as I flipped around to face the interloper, blocking Tori's body with my own. It would've been hard for Tori and Simon to see him in the dim moonlight, but I could see him clear as day. He was tall for a man; taller than Simon, just shorter than me, and he was large. Bulging muscle rippled off of every bone on his body, and for a moment, I worried I wouldn't be able to protect my pack. And then he opened his mouth. "More fillies for you to ruin?"

"I don't know what you mean," I replied, straightening my posture a bit. It was clear that something was happening on this land; he was too outrageously angry for things to be going right.

"Our women, pup; you're not aloud to just fuck them and walk away." I crossed my arms, irritated that he called me pup again. No matter how old I got, there was always someone more experienced waiting to rub my nose in the dirt.

"I haven't done anything to you or your pack; we're just passing through on our way to Texas."

"South," another voice offered. The second man stepped out of the trees, shorter and slighter than the first, but he held an air about him that the other hadn't. Alpha. And now that he had shown himself, almost a dozen others, man and wolf alike, came out of the shadows, surrounding us. I cursed myself seven shades of fool before squaring off with the alpha again. I had known the pack was close, but I had underestimated their distance. "And what is south, young wolf." I didn't answer, and the first man took the opportunity to jump in.

"He's going across the state, ruining our women, he is!" The alpha turned to him slowly, and though it was barely noticeable, I saw the first man slump his shoulders and bow his head. The alpha turned back to me. I stood taller.

"You're already mated," he started, flicking his eyes back at Tori. I put my hand behind me to grasp her thigh, but I shook my head. "Are you following your mate then? Or are you going on a sex-rampage as my lieutenant here seems to think?" I swallowed hard, looking away and thinking over my options.

"We're going to a funeral," Tori spoke, her voice feminine and clear in the silence of the woods. I was almost irritated that she had drawn attention to herself, but it was a good plan. He had called me mated, and it shook me to remember, my dream still fresh in my mind. Thinking about a funeral, or the lack of funeral Chloe had made my eyes water, just enough. I glanced back at the alpha and he looked as shaken as I felt. He stepped forward, slowly, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"That's a terrible thing, boy." I nodded, taking a deep breath to focus my thoughts again. I needed to be quick around these wolves, that much was obvious. And though the alpha seemed reasonable, the others were incensed about something else, something that had happened before we got here, and it created a tension in the group that felt ready to snap. I just hoped we were long gone before that happened.

The alpha's dark eyes darted down to Tori and I tensed beneath his hand, ready to strike if he made a move for her. But he only looked at her, taking in her broken thumb.

"When is it?"

"Two days from now." I answered, my voice hard.

"And why weren't you with her?" he asked cruelly, a sneer in his voice, testing me.

"She went to visit family before…" Tori faltered, unable to think of an excuse for Chloe's leaving. The alpha was staring me down now, so I took a deep breath and filled in with a horrible lie.

"Before the baby was born."

His hand slipped away, and literally all of the wolves surrounding us shifted back. He glanced at Tori again, and her face must have been appropriately stricken because he nodded to himself, looking to me again, the alpha of my own pack.

"We are the Lebani pack. We're small, as packs go, but we have built a good home here. Your-" he gestured to Tori.

"Sister-in-law," I said, knowing we didn't smell like blood-relatives. He frowned again and cleared his throat.

"Your sister-in-law is badly injured, and it is late in the night. Let us show you our hospitality. We would like to give you hot food, a warm bed, and a healer for her hand. And then in the morning, you can continue south. How does that sound?" I didn't look back at Simon or Tori, couldn't afford to if I was to assert my role as alpha wolf with this other man. But I heard as their heartbeats stuttered in relief before relaxing again.

"We would appreciate that very much."

"Good, I'll ride on with you then and give you directions to our home." He leaned into me a bit, lowering his voice, though most everyone but Simon could still hear him. "Knees aren't what they used to be," he divulged, patting the appendage in question. "Makes Changing mighty painful." I heard Tori's lips smile, and the genial alpha smiled back at her. "Duncan, you be sure everyone finishes patrol and then heads home will you?" The first wolf, the beta Duncan, bow low to his alpha before darting back into the woods and shifting. I tucked Tori into her seat before closing her door solidly.

"Mister Lebani?" I called to the alpha when he didn't move into the car. The man startled, broken from his trance.

"Who is that, and what is wrong with him?" I gestured for him to sit, closing the door behind me so Simon could drive on. I waited until the car was steadily driving down the freeway before I spoke.

"That is Kit, my adopted father; he's taken a bit of medicine to help him sleep longer. The man driving is his son, my adoptive brother Simon, and the woman in the passenger seat is Tori."

"Your mate's sister."

"Yes," I answered automatically. It didn't even feel like a lie; Tori and Chloe were just as much sisters as Simon and I were brothers. It was a fitting title.

"You'll want to turn here, boy." He called forward. Simon nodded silently and pulled off on the exit. "Take a right and keep going for a while. We were on the edges of our parameter when we found you." He said the last part to me, but I didn't know what to make of it. "We don't have too much land out here, but the land we have is beautiful. All rocky terrain and wooded forests; you could even go for a run later if you like."

"Thank you," I replied lightly, but there was no way in hell I was leaving my family alone, despite how kind this pack seemed. He shook his head and pat my knee.

"I've seen this before boy, and you need to exercise. You can't sit still for too long or it'll tear you apart." I looked out the window as we passed what seemed to be a convenience store surrounded by a splattering of houses. He pat my knee again before withdrawing, leaning back in the squishy seat and relaxing. Hopefully he would be done talking now.

Because I had felt it, the restlessness that came with suddenly becoming incomplete. It was why I had trained so hard with Tori, and why I Changed almost every night.

"Take a left at the light, and then go on until you see a ranch-gate on the left." He glanced at me again with a smile, "It's decorated with wolves." I smiled at that and settled in for the long drive.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six: Raindrops, Prelude Op. 28 No. 15_

Chopin

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

I remembered the pain. It had been years since it had hurt this bad, but I remembered it well. The aching, tearing agony of my first Change, and the mind numbing pain of my first Change back.

I was in the middle of it, shifting back to human, and because of that I knew why my mind was racing, my heart pounding blood past my ears. Liam was here, somewhere in the woods, alone with Chloe. I tried to force myself to shift faster, probably making it hurt more than it had to, but I had to get to Chloe, to protect her. It didn't matter that, in this memory, we both survived. It was still a dream, and I was damn certain it could change at a whim if it felt like it.

I was finally changed enough to run, my face and eyes clear, my legs only slightly wrong and my hands and feet partially clawed. The claws on my toes helped me dig into the dirt, and I tore through the forest, following her up-wind scent.

"Yes, they're dead. Yes, I control them. And you can't kill them. You can try, but you can't." Oh god, did he hear the tremor in her voice? Could he smell her fear as sharply as I could? I pushed on harder, nearly there.

"Well, then, I guess I'm going to have to fight the one I _can_ kill." I was still too far away when the bastard dove after her. She panicked, diving to the side, but it was too late. He caught the bottom of her ridiculous pink pajama pants and tugged. She fell onto her stomach, frantically scrambling to get up, digging into the ground with sickening fear. She pulled on her own leg, heaving herself forward, somehow dislodging his grip.

Now that she was out of his reach I focused.

I charged into the clearing, smacking into him from behind. He threw me of but I grabbed him again, bringing him to the forest floor, punching furiously, hitting him as often as he hit me. There was unsettled noise all around but I paid them no mind, all of my thoughts centered on bringing down the threat to Chloe's life.

I hadn't known it at the time, the fact that she was my mate, but I had felt it, and it had sent me into an unbridled fury to see her in danger.

I had the upper hand for a moment, leaning over him, my hands on his throat, hoping that if I cut off his airway for long enough he'd exhaust himself into feinting. But he yanked on my hair, toppling us the other way, landing me beneath him, and I smelt it. The scent of her blood wafted my way, and before I knew what was happening my hands clenched, _too hard_, and the bones between them snapped.

I froze, horrified, my eyes wide open, staring into the eyes of the dead man above me.

"I- I didn't…" I started, stuttering out of sheer panic. I hadn't meant to kill him, to only incapacitate him until we could be free. But I had known, even in that moment, if I couldn't get Chloe away…

I pushed the body to the side, scrambling out from under him. Liam's body fell limp, his head twisted at a strange angle. I swallowed, hard. It was the only sound in the forest for a moment.

"I didn't- I just- I was trying to stop him." I felt the anguish I had then, the horrible realization of the fact that I had taken a life. But it was a dream, too, and my sleeping mind also recognized the moment as necessary, as the right action to take as the alpha.

"You didn't mean it," she said softly. "But he did." Ah, my wonderful woman. I turned to look at her, but my eyes wouldn't focus properly.

"He would have killed you," she continued, "killed both of us, if it came down to it." Anger flashed hot across my skin, and both of my minds paralleled on the thought of how unacceptable that would have been. "You might not have meant to do it, but…" She didn't finish her sentence, instead stumbling over different ideas in her mind, her eyes tracking across the forest as she thought.

"It wasn't a fight to the death for you. But it was for him." I nodded, rubbing the back of my neck, wincing when I found an open wound. The poor girl seemed to not realize she was repeating herself, but she snapped out of it when she saw me flinch.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Just a few cuts and bruises. I heal fast. Might need a stitch or two here-" And then for the second time in my life I realized I was naked, in front of Chloe, for the first time. And for the second time in my life I was grateful I had remained crouched, turned mostly away from her. But I still went red as a fire engine, embarrassment and anxiety flushing across my skin. She peeled off her jacket and passed it to me and, though she was a might smaller than me, I managed to tie it around my lean waist and cover everything that needed covering.

"Thanks," I mumbled, my body still exhausted from my changes and the fighting, my soul weary from killing a man for the first time, even if it was the right thing to do. "We should get going."

I slipped back into awareness slowly, my foggy mind trying to race to recognize what had happened in my sleep. We were in the cabin Mister Lebani, _Ryan_ he insisted, had led us to for the night. Tori was tucked in between me and the wall, with Simon and dad on couches across the room from us. I relaxed against the twin mattress, thinking back on my dream.

There was nothing romantic or happy about it, not like before. It didn't even get to the parts where Chloe really showed her mettle, and it had skipped over the playfulness of our interaction when I had first Changed.

It only stood to remind me that, once again, Chloe was stronger than she looked. Physically, and mentally. She drew Liam away from me, keeping me safe at her own risk, but she also helped me get over having killed the other werewolf, reassuring me that it was the only possible solution. Of course, every time she said that I plucked ten more possibilities from my over active mind, but I never fought her on it much. As a wolf, I knew what had to be done. And I knew that, if I had let them go, we would have always been running from them.

I heaved a sigh, something I'd been doing a lot in the past two months, and sat up, leaving the bed to make coffee in the lone machine. I was in a stranger's house, but all of the accoutrements had been left out, and Tori and I were useless until we could at least smell it brewing.

I had just sat down with a cup when dad approached me, his face drawn and pinched in a way I hadn't seen since I was five.

"I called Lauren yesterday." I snorted into my coffee. "She felt the same way about me calling her. Said I should've lost her number when we 'kidnapped' Chloe from Badger Lake. Said we killed her the moment we took her and we didn't deserve to keep her." I looked away, old wounds slicing open at his words. She had said the same thing to me almost two months ago when I went to see her.

"She said it didn't matter if Chloe was alive; she was dead to her a long time ago." I rubbed at my mouth, frustration warring with the pure rage inside of me. As usual, Lauren Fellows was being irrationally unreasonable.

When she had sent Chloe back to be imprisoned by the Edison group, she assumed she was doing right. When she realized she was wrong, she was mad that she hadn't thought of it first. When we had all lived together, and as neighbors to each other for over a year, she _would not_ get off of Chloe's back about dating me. And she made sure I knew how much she hated me, too.

And when the violent wolf pack thirty miles off from our little town threatened me and Chloe, she insisted that I was the problem, and told me to leave.

So I did, and Chloe came with me. The others weren't far behind, even though we insisted they stay and make permanent lives for themselves. But there was a coup soon after, as Ash informed us through his weekly emails to Tori. It seemed no one was happy with the way they had handled the situation with the outside wolves, and from there problems spilled out of the fragile seams of the town. Unable to do much else, the Nasts let them go, with promises to stay in touch.

But it sounded like most everyone else was still together, living in Canada separate from the groups that tried to control them. They had sent their regards when Chloe died. Daniel and Maya made the trip out to see us. That was… hard. The sympathy and sorrow on their faces too much for me to really deal with.

"So where are we?" I jumped back to the present, realizing belatedly that I had let the silence between us sit for too long. I was tempted to lecture him about taking such a dangerous potion from that book. When Simon had shown me what he created I nearly lost it; half of the ingredients on that list were poisonous. But I resisted, knowing that it was surely a case of like father like son, and that he was blaming himself for what had happened with Chloe more than he should've.

"We caught up with a wolf pack on the highway." He paled a bit. "Don't worry, they seem to be rather nice, actually. The Lebani; have you heard of them?" He shook his head, running a shaky hand through his salt-and-pepper hair.

"No, I haven't, but there's dozens of little family packs, like the Cains. It'd be almost impossible to document them all."

"Well, they fed us when we got here, gave us a nice place to sleep and patched up Tori's hand." His eyes darted across the room to his sleeping daughter.

"What happened to her hand?" I narrowed my eyes at him, unable to keep my opinions to myself, for just a minute.

"The spell. It flung her hand against the car window hard enough to break two bones and shatter a third. Yet another reason why you shouldn't have taken that potion." He looked pained, but he also looked like a man who had settled himself with the consequences of his actions. So I moved on. "The heading on the compass changed to south." I turned to Tori's purse hanging on the arm of my chair, and grabbed a spare pen and pad of paper from inside.

_They think we're going to Texas for Chloe's funeral in two days._ He frowned, his dark eyebrows shadowing his brown eyes- eyes like Simon, like Tori. I continued to write. _But Chloe is south of here, somewhere. We'll follow the compass and hope we're off of their land before we find her._ He nodded once before folding the paper in half and closing up the book.

"We'll be having an early breakfast in about an hour or so with the alpha, Ryan, and his wife," I told him aloud, tucking Tori's things away again. "You should have time to freshen up. Your bag's by the couch on the floor."

"Thank you, Derek." My ears pinked at the sincerity imbued in his words, but I just nodded, ducking my head to sip from my coffee. He stood, grabbing his duffle before heading to the restroom. The shower was on moments after.

"Ah, you're such a good provider Derek!" I turned and gave Tori a smile as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She sipped her drink as she made her way to me, her eyes bright and rested.

"So, it's still pointed south. When are we leaving?" I eyed Simon still completely unconscious on the longer couch. He had driven the most last night.

"I figure we'll all freshen up and shower while we have the chance. Ryan'll come around in about an hour to fetch us for breakfast."

"You're calling him Ryan?" She asked sardonically, a pretty eyebrow raised. I slouched back in my chair, watching the morning light brighten outside of the window behind her.

"I have to. He cannot think, at any point in our time together, that he has any dominance over me, that he can overpower me." She considered my words carefully as she sipped on her drink, resting her elbows on the tabletop.

"That's fair. I think I'll just stick to calling him nothing." I smiled again, the expression easier now that she was more like herself.

"That's probably best."

I showered after dad when Tori proclaimed she'd need longer than ten minutes. Ryan came not long after that and led us through the camp to his cabin. Walking through the pack was harder than I thought it'd be. It was rough to see the whole of them cooperating, living happily with each other, husbands and wives laughing together while the pack children played.

It was worse watching Evalyn, his wife, with their three children. She insisted they wash their hands, even though they were in their PJ's and had clearly just woken up. She even watched on when Ryan lifted the smallest up to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. I took a deep breath and strode to the living room, deciding to wait there until the meal was served. I didn't have to wait long. Evalyn approached me quietly, standing next to me as I looked out the window at the pack children in the courtyard.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," she whispered, a soothing, matronly hand on my arm. I didn't know how to react, what to say. I had never really had a mother, and any female compassion I had felt was due to Chloe and even Tori. Beyond that, I had technically lied about losing a child as well. Although, for all we knew, she was pregnant. We had been trying, and the loss of that opportunity was enough to make my eyes sting.

She didn't seem to need me to say much of anything though. She just stood with me, rubbing her hand up and down my arm and across the back s of my shoulders.

"Evalyn?" Ryan called, poking his head into the room. I barely turned to acknowledge him, but Evalyn gave him her full attention, nodding to him once before he left. She faced me again, her hand still moving across aching muscles.

"Breakfast is ready Derek, are you hungry?"

"Yes, please," I replied, and followed her out the room.

The meal was full of chatter and laughing. Evalyn served up hearty blueberry pancakes and fresh orange juice. The couple was accommodating, and friendly, and they didn't pry. When it was over I hung back, sending the rest of my family back to the rooms so they could prepare for our leaving.

"I want to thank you, Ryan. Not all alphas would be as helpful as you." He smiled and shook my hand, his strong grip reassuring rather than intimidating.

"It's our pleasure, Derek, anything for a lone wolf. We all need help at some point." I nodded, not wanting to think on his words too deeply, and turned to leave. "And Derek," he called out to me. I turned at his door, worried that he had somehow seen through our plans and our lies. The look on his face told me he had, but instead he said; "make sure your sister keeps that hand on ice and drinks plenty of that tea we gave her."

"I will, thank you."

"And you make sure you stick close to her, son," my hackles rose at his words but he waved me off. "We weren't just looking to give you trouble last night; a rogue is going around and attacking our women. Duncan may have been a little rough, but the threat is real, and it has us all on edge."

"I will, thank you," I repeated, dually uncomfortable with the turn in our conversation and anxious to see where the compass would take us.

"I'll see you later, Derek."

"Goodbye, Ryan." I turned on my heel and walked out the door. We were in the car and on the road not long after that, dad taking his turn at the wheel, turning us south as soon as the interstate allowed. I sat all the way in the back, where he had slept the day before, and watched the mountainous scenery pass by.

"What about Huston?" I glanced over at her from the passenger side of the car. It was the day after our 'official' baby discussion, and we were driving out to Astoria. There was a woman there, who had been in the news, talking about things like poltergeists and demons. Normally she would have just been any other run-of-the-mill crazy, but in the background of the footage Tori had seen Rae.

"Like the city?" I asked, soaking in every detail of her that I could. We were in our Subaru, _safer_ I insisted, and she had the window almost all of the way down. Cool rain-tinted air pushed through her wild blonde hair, blowing her strawberry blossom scent to me. She gave me an irritated look, her blue eyes narrowed and her cute nose scrunched.

"Like the screenwriter. Although, I hadn't thought of the city thing…" I smiled at her frustration, catching her hand from the gearstick and holding on tight.

"I'm just glad you're finally thinking of boy names." She clicked the tip of her tongue against her teeth and yanked her hand from mine, shifting her entire positioning away from me, her left hand now resting on the top edge of the window frame.

"We could have anything at this point; I don't know why you're so focused on boys."

"Have you ever met a female werewolf?" She cut me another look.

"No, but you told me they exist, so they do!" I laughed at her logic, easing into my seat, leaning against my window, giving her space.

"My point is that they're quite rare." She suddenly turned and poked me hard in the stomach. I let out a gasp of surprise and tried to catch her, but she slipped away again. She gave me a large smile, so big my heart broke with it.

"We're quite rare ourselves you know."


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter Seven: Brahm's Lullaby_

Johannes Brahms

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

When I woke up the car was already parked, which made me positively _ill_. I got out as quick as I could, grateful that springtime air in the Rockies meant there was a bite of frost on the breeze. Two deep breaths and I was centered again. I looked back in the car and found a note taped to the back of the chair Simon had been in.

_Derek,_

_ We're taking a looong lunch in the dinner behind you._

I glanced back, and sure enough, there was a quaint little dinner a few yards off. A block behind that, there was a Wal-Mart.

_ I'm sure you've seen the Wal-Mart; we're going there, too. In the meantime, take the opportunity to Change and stretch your legs. There's some fruit in the cooler, and I'll buy you takeout from the dinner once we're done with the store._

_ Be safe_

_ -Tori_

The slanted cursive gave her away before I got to the bottom of the letter, but her words caught me off guard. I didn't think she had taken notice to how often I had been Changing lately, and the fact that she set aside specific time for me to do so…

I sniffed the air a few times, making sure no other predators were around, before I loped into the woods beside the car. I stripped easily once I was in the cover of the trees and knelt to Change, the transformation taking less than a minute now.

One of the benefits of Colorado was that there was near-endless wilderness, at least where we were. I ran until dusk, loving the icy air blowing through my fur, the healthy ache in my muscles from pushing myself across the terrain. It also gave me the chance to patrol, just a bit. We would be moving on as soon as I got back, but it was nice to know we were out of Lebani land, and it made me feel better knowing other wolves weren't around either.

When I got back to my clothes, they had changed. There was also a bottle of water, toothbrush and paste, and a stick of deodorant sitting on top of them. I took my offerings from the hygiene goddess and utilized them quickly, my stomach more than empty, the mere apple I had this afternoon burnt away.

I traded my toiletries for a large to-go container of chicken fried steak and potatoes. She even put pepper and gravy on them.

"Tori?" I asked, feeling her goodwill was going just a _bit_ too far. I never even knew that she noticed these things, let alone committed them to memory. She gave me a sheepish look, like she knew she'd been caught.

"I fell asleep, too." I hung my head, conflicted. It wasn't Tori that had remembered the little things, it was Chloe. It was hard to not get my hopes up about her really being alive. I had to remind myself that, if she was some type of spirit, she'd still remember, just the same. When I lifted my eyes Tori was giving me a queer look, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"What?"

"Well… you didn't really eat a rabbit, did you?" I laughed, the sound so strangely raw that I surprised us both. But I held onto the jovial feeling, tugging on one of her braids before walking past her and into the car.

"Not today."

It was dark not to long after that. Tori drove on, and I sat in the passenger seat, first eating my dinner and then sitting quietly. Almost an hour passed, the only sound in the cabin dad and Simon's snoring, before Tori spoke.

"How do you think she's coming to us?" I pulled my eyes off of the road to look at her. She was biting her lip, gnawing at it in distress, and her knuckles were white on the steering wheel.

"I haven't seen her since the first time." Not in the way she meant. She shot me a glance before starting up on her bottom lip again, squeezing at the wheel rhythmically.

"I just… she's not a witch." She frowned at her own words, and I waited for her to expand on her rather obvious statement. "What I mean is, I've heard of witches astral projecting, and dream walking and the like. But she's not a witch. So, how is she doing it?" My heart beat so hard against my chest I was sure she could hear it. But I had to say it; I had to say what we both were thinking. I looked away.

"She could be a ghost." Peripherally I watched as one of her hands slapped over her eyes, so I kept my own focused on the road. It was the middle of the night, so there weren't any other cars around, but I watched to make sure she didn't blindly fling us over a cliff. She worked hard to even her breathing, staring at the road again, too, and wringing the wheel like before.

"She could be a ghost." She swallowed hard after her words, and though I wanted to comfort her somehow, I was sure it was the last thing she wanted. Comfort, from me. "I had a horrible thought today; what if she's dead just like we thought, and the spell is just leading us to her body?" I heaved a sigh and thought back to all of the times I was sure I hadn't let my hopes rise about Chloe. I was wrong.

"At least, it would be something." I finally replied, the vapid words somehow feeling vulgar once I said them. Tori frowned, scrunching her nose and twisting her lip in her teeth.

"It would be something." That was it. In that moment we decided that, even if it meant breaking our hearts further, we'd follow through with this quest. Because at least it was something, and not knowing would be worse.

I stood on the top of the rise miles behind our house in Aberdeen, Washington. From here I could see the shore to the west, and the house down in the valley to the south. I bent down to straighten out the picnic blanket, making sure all of the corners were drawn taut. Anxiety made my heart race, but my waking mind was smiling. I knew what was happening here.

"I should kill Tori for putting me in these _God damned_ heels just to make me climb up this mountain!" I turned with a wide grin as Chloe broke out of the woods, her blonde hair piled prettily on the top of her head, and a blue skirt dancing around her knees. She yelped when the edge of it got caught on a bush. I darted down the hill and swept her up in my arms, giggles pealing from her lips.

"You have to make it up the hill to see why Tori wanted you in heels." She gave me a kiss on the cheek, and I almost stumbled, making her laugh again.

"I have a good idea of what we're doing up here, Derek, and heels are not typically necessary." I really tripped then, her sultry voice catching me off guard. We landed on the blanket together, and I felt my heart jump again.

Tori had coached me on this; she told me what to do, what to say. But laying with Chloe now, her warm body beneath mine, her bright smile shining up at me, I forgot everything Tori had taught me.

"Will you marry me?" I blurted, my devotion and love for this woman bursting out of me. I even loved her look of surprise as she processed my words. Her hands tightened around my neck and I cradled her closer. A second passed, and my anxiety started replacing my happiness.

"Marry you?" she asked breathily, her eyes watering. My mind raced back to Tori's lecture on proposals, but I couldn't decide if her tears were from happiness or not.

"Will you?" Chloe choked on a laugh, swallowing hard before she answered.

"Yes, Derek, _yes_." Our smiles, so wide it almost hurt, didn't fade even as she kissed me. Have you ever kissed someone like that? Happiness surrounded me, knowing that even though it felt like life couldn't get more perfect than in that moment, it would. It would get better, because I'd have Chloe, always.

She deepened our kiss and I sunk into her affections, her tongue sliding across my lips, my hands skating up her back, pushing her breasts wonderfully against my chest. She slid her hand down, gripping my shoulder as she rolled her body into mine.

I gasped and woke up to Tori's hand on my shoulder. I pushed her off scrambling back against the car window, trying to catch my breath. My head spun, but I oriented myself quickly, realizing that I was still in the car, on our way to finding Chloe. I glanced at Tori, her worried face knifing me with guilt.

"What's wrong, Tori?" I asked, putting my head on one hand and reaching out with the other to rub her arm apologetically. She sighed, turning back to the road. But we were moving slower now, and when I looked outside, I realized we weren't on the highway anymore.

"Where are we?"

"Aspen," she answered, rolling her shoulders once I let her go. "The compass started to get hotter, so I looked at it, and it was swinging around. So far it's led me here, turn by turn." We were in the middle of nowhere it looked, passing only the occasional house.

"Do you think we're close?" I asked, my heart racing now.

"I… I think so. Maybe we should wake the others?" The unease in her voce made me look at her again. Her hair looked like she'd pushed her hands through it more than once, and she was wringing the steering wheel again. I turned and shook Simon, telling him to wake dad once he glanced up at me. I faced Tori again, putting a reassuring hand on her knee.

"Tori, you need to relax, you need to focus before we get there." Her brown eyes flicked to mine briefly. "We already know what to expect, right? We already talked about this."

"We did." She confirmed, her voice shaking.

"So we'll follow through, to the end." She turned to me again, worrying her lip, her face drawn in barely-concealed anguish.

"To the end."


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter Eight: When the Love Falls _

Yiruma

**This will mark the start of a posting frenzy until the end of the story, since it's already written, and I truly wouldn't be able to keep it to myself anyway ^-^  
Enjoy-**

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

We drove for about twenty more minutes, Simon's hand kneading into my shoulder the way Tori's kept rubbing into the steering wheel, the passing neighborhoods dark in the middle of the night. Eventually the compass led us to the end of a private drive half-way out in the middle of nowhere. Snow laced the grass and trees here, the air coming in through Tori's cracked window making her shiver.

"It looks like this is it." We left the car parked a block away on the main street, and then hiked through the forest with the long driveway to our left.

"What should we be ready for, do you think?" Tori whispered to me about half-way up. I kept my eyes ahead. Rich houses meant long driveways, but we could be coming up on it at any moment.

"Everything," I whispered back, realizing quickly how dramatic it sounded. But it was true, so I didn't take it back. For all that we've talked, neither of us had mentioned specifics of Chloe's situation, because Chloe hadn't shared anything. It worried Tori. A lot. But I tried hard to not let it get to me, and assumed Chloe didn't know much about where she was herself.

Three more yards passed in silence before we reached the edges of the house. We were still hidden in the trees, but from here I could see almost the entire property. With the way we approached it we now faced it from the side. It was huge, three stories tall, and it went deep into the property. It was backed by a sprawling backyard with grass and trees and a small pond that smelt like fish.

"I still don't feel any magic here." Tori whispered to me, which meant no parameter spells, which was… suspect. After the careful planning they went through to capture Chloe, why wouldn't they put the same amount of effort into keeping her?

"We should keep going. Do you know if she's here?" Dad asked, turning to Tori.

"The compass is pointing right at the house, so she should be." I could smell her, too, but the scent was old, worn by the passing of time. Normally I wouldn't be able to smell more than a week-old scent, but I was so desperate to catch her trail, it wouldn't have mattered how old it was. As soon as that strawberry-blossom fragrance tickled across my nose I was striding across the yard to the house. Tori tried to catch the sleeve of my shirt but it slipped through her hands like water, and all the others could do was follow me.

The back door was locked, but a jerking twist to the knob opened it for me with relative quiet. We took inventory of the room we walked-in on. It was a kitchen; steel appliances, gleaning marble countertops. To the right I could see a fair-sized living room, with three couches and a large television, but I doubted the others could see with such clarity. Dad pulled into a tight circle in a dark area by the door.

"Well?" He asked, looking directly at me. But I could only shake my head; once I had entered the house I couldn't catch the slightest hint of her scent among the other residents. "Then we should start from the bottom up, that way we might be able to get a bit of information before we run into anyone else." The other two nodded, using a dimmed version of Tori's witch-light to find the basement door. I was following them when dad stopped me, catching my arm.

"Derek, you're sure you smelt her before? Sure you didn't mistake it with someone else?" My face contorted in disgust before I could hide it, but I wasn't sure he could read my expression beyond my frowning.

"I'm sure," was all I could say before striding off, clamping down on the urge to snap at him. He had read endless texts on werewolves, had talked to countless experts, but he still felt impulse to question the basics. The olfactory receptors in my brain were unbelievably advanced compared to the human nose, but he questioned it, even though Chloe could be here, waiting for us.

By the time I caught up to Simon and Tori he had picked the simple lock to the downstairs and were easing the door open. The hairs on the back of my neck rose at the sight of how weak that lock was, but I followed them down the carpeted stairs.

I took a breath and stumbled. I caught myself on the railing. Tori was quick to turn and check on me, but I waved her on, eager to get to the lower level. There was a glow lighting the way from beyond the stairwell, strangely bright and eerily sterile. We hit the landing, turned the corner, and I fell to my knees.

"Oh my God."


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter Nine: The Eternal City_

Michele McLaughlin

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

"Oh my God," Tori whispered, one hand to her mouth, the other dropping automatically to my left shoulder. Simon darted around her, towards the cage. She lunged to catch him, though, her hand still on me. "Don't touch it, at all, for any reason." She sounded so firm, but I was only barely aware of her words.

Because Chloe was here.

I could hear her heartbeat from across the room, too feint compared to what it used to be, the IV drip attached to her hand making my anxiety spike. She was laid out in a cage of silver and gemstones, her body stretched out at a strange backwards angle so that her forehead pressed against a metallic blue and green stone.

"It's labradorite, Derek." Tori spoke the words like they should've meant something to me, but all I could think of was Chloe. I watched as her chest rose and fell, her red hair tied up in braids, wearing sweats and a t-shirt, like it was a normal day. Relief nearly drowned me, and the fact that I had left her, that she had been _here_ for two months washed away in the happiness I found in the simple fact that she was alive. Tori shook me, jarring me enough that I faced her, for just a second. "Derek, that's how she's been seeing us, through the labradorite. Witches use it for astral travel."

"You're right." We all turned to find Chloe, looking just the same as she did in her cage, standing behind us. "It was hard to figure out, but you're right." She walked up to us slowly, skirting around Simon and dad. She ran her hand through my hair, parting the locks with her warm fingers, but when I reached a hand to touch her hip, it went straight through her. My heart nearly stopped.

"This is too much," I managed, my throat thick with a dichotomy of emotions. Her grip in my hair tightened, but only for a moment.

"Why are you like this now then?" Tori asked, gesturing to Chloe's half-corporeal form.

"They're monitoring my vitals, there-" She tilted her head towards the machine the IV came from, caressing me still. My stomach jumped to my throat and back, and humiliating as it was, my breath shook, and tears rolled silently down my cheeks.

Chloe. Chloe was here, and touching me, and _alive._

"I'm supposed to travel every night, usually around the grounds, but I've been using the opportunity to see you both."

"Is this real?" I opened my eyes, closed at the supreme pleasure of my once-dead love's hands on me again, and found Simon standing bereft in the middle of the bright room, his amber orbs wide and his hands shaking.

"It's real." She replied, dropping her hand from me, wandering around the group again towards some sort of panel. I listened as she explained the machine to them, explained to dad why she was taken, but it was all out of focus. Blood rushed past my ears, too fast to be healthy, as I stood and shambled my way to Chloe's body. I didn't touch the cage, but I knelt in front of her, watching her, feeling my heart break all over again at the sight of her. But it was less now, because she was alive.

But there were dark rings under her eyes like she hadn't rested in days, and she looked frailer than she had two months ago. As I watched her the other Chloe told the group what had happened. There was an individual team of scientists, a group of five from what she'd seen, that were trying to find other magical properties in super naturals.

"But they seemed much more organized than just scientists when we saw them," dad commented as Tori tried to hack into the computer on the panel. I heard her furious typing, and Simon's weight shifting from left to right, but the Chloe's body hardly moved, and I ached to take her into my arms and check on her.

"That was different; they hired some old St. Cloud mercenaries to bring me here. I watched as they paid them off and left before the scientists locked me in there."

"Why would they do this?" Simon asked, his voice hollow. I reached for the cage, on impulse, the deepest parts of my soul wondering the same question, and wanting to hold her as I listened to the answer, but I stopped myself from ripping it in half, just barely.

"Why do any of these people do anything? They want stronger and better super naturals. Same as the St. Clouds, same as the Nasts. But for this group, they believed that all of us had untapped abilities. Necromancers, for instance, they believed could turn themselves into ghosts; that it was just a reversal of what we did for other spirits and we just hadn't learned how yet."

"That's a… strange theory."

"And it was just a theory, for years, because they couldn't find one strong enough to test them."

"Which is why they took you." I filled in, my head swimming and my emotions spiraling.

"Which is why they took me," she repeated, "because they could put me through their tests, and if it worked with me, there would be a small chance in it working in other necromancers. And for them, any chance was worth the risk."

"How do you know all of this?" Dad asked, and I could hear the skepticism in his voice, just like before. I was about to turn on him again when Simon spoke up.

"Dad- that's out of line."

"No, it's fine Simon. I told you, I'm supposed to travel every night, but they don't watch me when I do. So I read. Locks don't keep me back, so I've broken into every office, every study, _every bedroom_ to find out as much as I could. And then I went to Tori." The typing slowed, but I didn't turn around to face the scene, letting it play out without me, caressing Chloe's still body with my eyes.

"Why me?" Tori asked after a moment, her voice practically shaking with trepidation.

"Because you're a witch. I assumed you'd believe, more than anyone, that your dream was more, that it meant more." She didn't answer, instead typing more furiously on the panel.

"I think I've-" There was a loud creak before the cage shifted up. The jolt shook Chloe off of the labradorite, and I assumed her projection dissipated as her eyelids twitched. The walls of the cage lifted and her body tumbled out into my waiting arms.

Holding her again… it was indescribable. It was like everything stilled in the world, and for just that moment everything was okay. Chloe was with me, alive, in my arms, her heart beating against mine.

"Chloe," I whispered, my waterlogged voice muddling her name. She turned into me, just slightly, before her eyelashes fluttered and opened to her bright blue eyes looking up into mine.

"Derek," she sighed, putting a hand on my chest. I covered it with one of my own, holding her closer than before, pulling her body out of the cage completely and onto my lap. I took a deep breath in her hair and the world was brighter, even through my tear-blurred eyes.

"Oh, dear," a voice drawled behind me. I kept Chloe pressed against my chest as I turned my chin to look. "We were warned about you when we saw that ring on her pretty little finger." He was a short man, thin, with jet-black hair. Simon, Tori, and dad eased into a half-circle around us, facing the interloper head-on.

"So, we thought to bring in a bit of… reinforcement." My nose burned as another wolf came into the room. I didn't know a face to the scent, but I had definitely smelled this wolf before, here in the Rockies. I turned a bit more and watched as he lowered himself into the room on the stairs. He was huge, with tangled red hair and bulging muscles. He gave me a sneer, and eyed Chloe with the lewdest look I'd ever seen.

My muscles twitched beneath my skin. Chloe laid a gentle hand on my arm before scooting out of my grasp onto the floor. I let her, mostly because, seconds later, I Changed, blocking everyone's view of her in the corner the bottom of her cage made. The skinny man tutted at her, looking disappointed.

"Dear Chloe, why would you betray us this way?"

"I told you- doctor- he'd- find me." And I had taken way too damn long in my opinion, especially with the way she was breathing so hard, just from waking up.

"That you did." He snapped his fingers and the rabid wolf Changed, sprinting my way. I met him in the middle of the room, catching his throat in my teeth and pinning him to the floor.

It was utter chaos after that.

I worked twice as hard, making sure the wolf didn't get away while making sure he didn't get anywhere the _fuck_ near Chloe. It surprised me when a bolt of lightening was shot into my back, but I think it surprised the good doctor even more that it didn't do a damn thing to me. I bit in to the russet wolf's throat again, clamping down harder, getting a good grip on his spine before jerking my head to the side, breaking it.

I felt resolved, knowing that I had done good for the other pack, for the alpha who had been so good to me.

I turned just in time to see Simon magically push the doctor in the wall, hard enough that his skull made an audible crack against the sheetrock, just before Tori hit him with the biggest ball of lightening I had ever seen.

His heart stopped before he hit the ground.


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter Ten: Crystal_

Fleetwood Mac

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

We left them there, as a message to the other members of their 'team' for when they showed up. Simon helped a still-weak Chloe up the stairs and down the drive to our SUV. Tori and I walked out together, taking just a moment to look around the strange lab once more before striding away, eager to catch up to the other two. Dad stayed after, but he never told us why.

I patrolled circles around Simon and Chloe, adrenalin still pumping into my sinewy muscles, anxiety currently overpowering any relief or joy I had felt before. Safety was the number one issue here. Simon sat her down on the middle seat once we got to the car, and Tori and I quietly went to the trunk after I circled the vehicle a time or two. She popped the lift-gate open and handed me one of her smaller totes that had a long-sleeved shirt, boxers and jeans rolled-up inside for me. I darted into the forest, Changing faster than I could ever remember before sprinting back. Twigs and rocks dug into my bare feet, but I didn't care, nothing slowed me down.

Nothing, until I made it back to the car. Tori was hugging Chloe, her face buried in her now-loose red hair. The two women held each other so tightly I didn't have the heart to break it up. Both of them shuddered with tears and I had to look away.

"I'm going to get dad, and we'll hit the road."

"I'll go with you," I offered as I pulled on a pair of socks and spare sneakers. I knew that, no matter how much I never wanted to step foot in that room again, I had unfinished business in that basement I couldn't resolve in wolf-form. I caught Tori's shining cinnamon eyes for one moment and she nodded, burying her nose again.

We were back in less than five minutes, my souvenir in a bio bag in my left pocket. The girls had settled down then, holding each other lightly and talking as we walked back.

Chloe turned, and everything that we had been through hit me when her eyes met mine. Everything with the Edison group, St. Cloud, and the Nasts. Our romance and freelancing after. My proposal, her acceptance, and every kiss and touch before and since.

Her death.

Her resurrection.

She ran to me and I met her half-way, catching her mid-stride, holding her so close I couldn't tell where her breath began and mine ended. Her scent surrounded me, as it always had, and I reflexively relaxed, burying my face in her throat similar to Tori, breathing her in.

"Oh my God, Derek." She sounded so troubled, so overwhelmed. I pet her hair, soothing her even as I relished in the sound of my name coming from her lips again. _"Derek-"_ I cut her off, catching her lips with mine, kissing her, _finally_. She sighed against my mouth, her fingers weaving through my hair, pulling me in closer. It felt like my whole world had shifted again, clicking and sinking into place, again, because of Chloe. Because she was here, and in my arms, and even though it felt like life wouldn't get any better than in this moment, it would, because I'd have Chloe. Always.

We drove straight to the Lebani land, but we didn't stay. Chloe stood outside of the car, her hands clasped gently together, the cool spring breeze lifting and twisting her auburn hair wildly. Ryan looked at me as though he hadn't recognized the sight of me, but he knew my scent. Evalyn beamed up at me when I met them on their patio.

"I brought you something," I started without pleasantries, pulling the bio bag out of my pocket and passing it to Ryan. He took it, fingering the fangs inside curiously. He met my eyes with a new-found respect, and because I respected him too, I bow my head, just an inch. "He won't be bothering you anymore."

"Oh, Derek," Evalyn gasped, leaping on me in a grateful hug, holding me in a motherly way that would be easy to get used to. "I'm so happy for you," she whispered in my ear, and I found my arms wrapping around her soft frame, pulling her in for a moral support I hadn't realized I was missing. She rubbed my back gently for a few minutes before we parted, a loving smile on her face.

"Thank you, Derek. I can't tell you how much this means to us." I shook his hand, trying to brush off his compliment.

"It was nothing. And tell Duncan it wasn't any fault of his own that he hadn't found the wolf. He was hiding out inside of a house in Aspen, well outside of your range." His slightly-bushy brows rose at that, but he nodded to himself, as though I had answered a question that had been plaguing him, too.

"You should go," Evalyn said after a moment, breaking the silence gently. She put a hand on my arm, her thumb rubbing side-to-side. "You'll always be welcome here, Derek. Both of you." Her eyes flicked behind me and my heart swelled, my emotions with Chloe overwhelming ever since she came back to me.

"Thank you," I said, imbuing the words with as much sincerity as I could before turning and walking away from them a second time. Chloe had a small hand over her mouth, her blue eyes suspiciously shiny, but I took her hand and helped her into the car, and we left for the long drive back to northern California.

It was a much better trip on the way back than it had been before. Every time we stopped Chloe and Tori came back to the car with some sort of state-paraphernalia, even going so far as to pick us all out sweaters and hoodies that had 'Wyoming' written on them in creative ways.

Chloe and I slept in the back when we weren't taking our driving turns together. It was bliss, holding her again as we fell asleep, finding her still solidly in my arms when I woke. And when she drove I'd watch her; her red hair whipping around familiarly, the sleeves on my navy Wyoming hoodie rolled up around her wrists, a small smile on her face and her hand in mine. The déjà vu made me anxious, but whenever that happened, I just held on tighter.

It was a liberating experience, having her in the house, at the table, in our bed. We brought a few of her things out, and the hurt that normally accompanied the action was gone. She smirked when she saw her journals spread out across our nightstand, the most recent still opened from when I had read it, and frowned lightly when she saw her pillow on the bed, undeniably touched. We had a quiet dinner, a normal dinner, and then for the first time in almost three months we were alone together.

We lay side-by-side in our bed, facing each other, my hands petting her hair, running down her arm and up her back; touching her, always touching her. She sunk into me, her nose at the base of my throat, breathing deeply the way I breathed her in, garnishing basic comfort from the mere scent of the other.

"I'm so sorry, Chloe," I whispered into her hair, my abandonment of her weighing heavily on me. She shifted, bringing her lips to one side of my jaw and a small hand to the other.

"Don't be, Derek. They had planned, and they were ready for you, for all of us." The words didn't make me feel better, but her voice did. Her murmured whisper in my ear, the warm puffs of air that accompanied them, the way her chest rose and fell against mine as she filled her lungs to speak.

Everything felt fresh, brand new like I had never experienced before, even when we had first met. And I was noticing all of the little things; the freckle behind her left ear, the way the ends of her lashes tangled near the outer corners of her eyes, how she still smelt of strawberry blossoms but there were also hints of mint, of the dinner we had, of Tori's perfume from hugging the witch so often.

She ran her knuckles over my cheek once, twice, before I flicked my eyes towards hers. She made sure she had my full attention before she lifted herself up, just a bit, stretching her body out against mine, and kissed me. Her kiss was light at first; gentle brushes that made me think that things might feel new for her, too. But soon we fell into an easy rhythm, giving and taking in synch; complimenting each other as we always had, and I couldn't help but think that it was a perfect moment, one where nothing else mattered.

All I could feel was her warm body pressed against me. All I could taste was her mint-and-strawberry kiss. All I could hear was the pounding of her heart, beating in cadence with mine. All I could think about was her, and how much I wanted this to last, and how incredibly lucky I was to get it, _again_, and how tight I was going to hold onto it.


	11. Epilogue

_Epilogue: Beethoven's 5 Secrets_

The Piano Guys

_Based on the characters from the _Darkest Powers_ series, owned and created by Kelley Armstrong. May contain explicit excerpts from her writing, and such pieces and ideas belong to the original author._

I stood behind Chloe as she sat at the small breakfast table on the balcony of our hotel, looking over her shoulder at the photograph she had pinned to the table beneath a short glass of red wine. The warm Italian breeze picked her strawberry-blonde hair off of her shoulder, blocking my view of the photo for just a second, but I had already committed that one to memory.

She folded the short letter she had written, tucking it in a matching crème envelope before picking up the picture, turning it face down to write 'Chloe and Huston' on the back, waving it a few times in the air to dry the ink, her engagement ring and wedding band glinting in the golden sun. A garble came from her left and I looked down to the baby in the stroller beside her, his thick black hair piled messily on top of his head and his bright blue eyes seeking me out.

He saw me and reached, garbling more ardently than before. Chloe glanced at him as she tucked the photo away, sealing the envelope. She smiled when she saw his attention diverted. I moved onto the balcony, picking up my baby boy in one swift swing. He giggled, but Chloe paled, just a bit. My smile stretched my cheeks as I held him by the ribs and swung him down and up again, his little body going taut and his arms and legs stretching out. Chloe cleared her throat and looked away. I laughed.

"What's wrong?" I asked innocently. She gave me a small frown before turning to her letter-work on the desk again. She pulled out a light purple envelope and began to write Tori's address in Washington on it.

"You know it freaks me out when you do that," she replied after a moment, still silently fuming. I had almost forgotten I was teasing her, busy blowing raspberries on Huston's plush cheeks, absolutely loving the way he laughed when I did.

"He'll only do it for a few months more now; it's fascinating, some of the reflexes babies have." She pulled out a few sheets of crème stationary with purple scrollwork on the edges.

"Absolutely fascinating; until you drop him and we don't have a baby anymore." Subconsciously I pulled him in close, panic lashing me like fire at her words. He laughed, pressing a fat, wet kiss to my neck, and I relaxed again, reason taking over once more.

"You know I'd never do that."

"I do," she replied, looking up at me briefly to give me a small smile, "which is why I haven't killed you yet for doing so." I gaped at her sweet tone as she promptly turned back to the letter, filling Tori in on what we'd been up to the few months since Huston had been born. The crème envelope was addressed to her father, and the two blue envelopes, already sealed with pictures tucked in, would go to Simon and dad.

"Do you want any help?" I offered, eyeing the photo-books, baby toys, stationary, and forgotten breakfast plates she had somehow managed to squeeze together on the table that couldn't have been two feet across.

"No, I'm almost done. Which photos do you think Tori would like?" I sat and opened the book carefully, setting Huston on my knee before flipping through the linoleum-slick pages with my free hand.

The album started with just me and Chloe, shortly after we had found her again. We stayed with the group for a month or two before moving out and on our own, buying a house in northern Montana. It was secluded, and high elevation, but it had three sprawling floors, tons of land, and looked out over Lake Sherburne. It was even close enough to Calgary that Daniel and Maya came to visit every once in a while. Chloe had managed to take beautiful shots of the house, and even snuck in one of me as a wolf at the lake, looking out at the water.

And then there were the shots of her through the pregnancy. We had lined her up along a wooden beam between the living room and the kitchen, taking a picture every two weeks, watching steadily as Huston grew. There were ultrasound pictures mixed in, and my favorite from then, the one I took when the doctors told her that, for sure, that the penis in the picture meant we were having a boy.

There were the pictures Tori and Simon took of us together while we waited in the delivery room and, the one that Tori loved most, when I was torn between holding my son for the first time and making sure Chloe was safe and healthy.

And then the book was filled with Huston. Bringing him home, feeding him, watching him sleep, helping him roll around. Pictures of me rocking him and Chloe falling asleep with him. I smiled as I looked through them, cherishing the memories for what they were; pure happiness.

"She's seen those," Chloe prodded gently, her eyes never leaving the now two page letter she was writing.

I moved on, picking five pictures for Tori that we had doubles of. There was one of Huston's first hair cut, his naked bum in our farmer's sink as Chloe eye-balled her way through it with dull-tipped scissors and a comb. I picked another of us eating dinner; it was the first time Huston had spaghetti, mere weeks ago, and I sat next to his highchair, looking twin to him with our black ruffled hair and sauce-covered faces. The last three were of us in Italy that we had developed just yesterday; one of him and Chloe by the Colosseum, one of him and me in the Basilica, and one we had gotten a fellow tourist to take, with Chloe and me holding onto each other, Huston cradled between us, and the Trevi fountain bubbling in the background.

"Those are good ones," Chloe commented as she leaned over to peek at my selection. Huston grabbed onto her rose-gold hair and pulled her in, excited to take her attention. She put a hand over his, sliding her hair through his grip as she stared him in the eyes, both pairs of bright blue orbs going cross. When she was free she bussed him on the forehead before turning back and sealing my choices in the envelope.

"Do you know how much the postage will cost?"

"Too much, I'm sure," she replied as she collected all of her letters in a small stack. "But I'll get the man at the front desk to sort it out with me." We had decided to send the letters, or at the very least her father's, from the furthest place possible from where we lived, just in-case. We hadn't had anymore run ins with people trying to collect or control us for our powers, but now that we had Huston, we were once again on our best paranoid behavior. "If it's too outrageous, I'll just keep the others until we get back home."

She sighed happily and leaned back in her chair, swiping Huston from my arms after running round-tipped nails up his belly, making him laugh hysterically. I looked at the two of them together, the golden sunset bouncing off of their contrasted hair, contented smiles on both of their faces as he leaned his cheek against her heart. There was a knock at the hotel room door and they looked at each other in surprise, Chloe's face over-exaggerated to match his honestly stunned one.

"I think that's the pasta, Huston! Shall we go see?" He bounced his head once, over doing it and nearly knocking himself on her collar bone. She laughed and lifted them both from the seat, striding to the door easily. I smiled and put the pictures away, tucking the letters in the album, and making sure they were well out of range of the bolognaise-bombs our son was sure to catapult everywhere.


End file.
